s.
She was in no joyous mood at best, and the perverseness of things
aggravated her beyond endurance. Her callings to the cattle became
more and more tearful, and presently ended in a sob.

"There now, Beulah, don't worry; we will have them in a minute," said
a quiet voice, and looking about she found Jim almost at her elbow,
his omnipresent smile playing gently about his white teeth. "I was
down at the creek filling the tank, when I saw you had a little
rebellion on your hands, and I thought reinforcements might be in
order."

"You might have hollered farther back," she said, half reproachfully,
but there was a light of appreciation in her eye when she dared raise
it toward him. "I'm afraid I was beginning to be very--foolish."

She tripped again on the treacherous buckwheat, but he held her arm
in a strong grasp against which the weight of her slim figure seemed
but as a feather blown against a wall. The life of the plains had
bred in Beulah admiration for physical strength, and she acknowledged
his firm grip with an admiring glance. Then they set about their
task, but the sober-eyed cows had no thought of being easily deprived
of their feast, and it was some time before they were all turned back
into the pasture and the fence temporarily repaired behind them.

"I can't thank you enough," Beulah was saying. "You just keep piling
one kindness on top of another. Say, Jim, honest, what makes you do
it?"

But at that moment the keen blast of an engine whistle came cutting
through the air--a long clear note, followed by a series of toots in
rapid succession.

"I guess they're running short of water," said Jim. "I must hustle."
So saying he ran to the ford of the creek where the tank-wagon was
still standing, and in a minute his strong frame was swaying back and
forth to the rhythmic clanking of the pump. But it was some minutes
before the tank was full, and again the clarion call of the whistle
came insistently through the air. Hastily dragging up the hose, he
uttered a sharp command to the horses; their great shoulders socketed
into the collars; the tugs tightened, quivering with the strain; the
wheels grated in the gravel, and the heavily-loaded wagon swung its
way up the bank of the coulee.

Meanwhile other things were transpiring. Harris had returned from
town the night before with the fixed intention of paying an early
visit to the Farther West. He and Riles had spent more time than they
should breasting the